Offshoring, Workforce, Education, and 21st Century Skills

[Note:
This is an archive page, last update #17: August 22, 2004. I developed
this page at a time when few people knew about or understood the extent
of offshoring and globalization. There are now many excellent sources
for this information. -- Bob, bobpearlman@mindspring.com
]

February 4, 2004 --
Dongguan. Have you ever heard of it? It's only a city of 6.5 million people
in South China. It's only the home to 15,000 international companies. It's
the center of the world furniture industry and one of the great centers
for the manufacturing of PC components.

I only heard of Dongguan
a month ago, when I started monitoring the offshoring phenomenon. Nothing
like a jobless economic recovery to disclose to the world a development
that is at least 20 years in the making.

In the past 6 months
the world has become increasing aware of the rising role of China and India
in the world economy, a phenomenon largely spurred by international companies
setting up first manufacturing plants, then call centers, then other business
processes (accounting, back office), and finally knowledge work (software
engineering, etc.). Offshoring has become a big political issue all over
the developed world, from the USA to the UK to the European Union. Its a
good thing, in my opinion, that some developing countries (India, China,
Brazil) are catching up and providing new opportunities to their citizens.

But offshoring/globalization
also means that once again, as in the 80s and the 90s, the advanced countries
need to move up the value chain. To keep their economies thriving, they
must produce higher value goods and services. Citizens of these countries,
and particularly young people, can no longer succeed with just basic skills.
Instead they must become knowledge workers with the full array of 21st Century
Skills.

I am active in efforts
to promote success for young people in the USA and so I am monitoring the
"offshoring" issue closely in order to promote policies and practices
that will benefit youth here, and in other countries as well. Through this
web page I want to share with colleagues the articles, reports, books, and
key links that I have come across that best report the "offshoring"
phenomenon and its impact on education and training for young people.

Articles(Note: Many newspapers
require you to register to see the article. Registration is normally free)

IEEE-USA
Testimony by Ron Hira before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee
on Small Business, October 20, 2003. Ron Hira is an Assistant Professor
of Public Policy at Rochester Institute of Technology.

"Technology
and Worker Efficiency", by Steve Lohr, New Economy Column, Business
section, New York Times, Feb. 2, 2004. "How much does information
technology really contribute to economic productivity and corporate competitiveness?"
This column reports the latest thinking on this subject.

3.3
Million US Services Jobs To Go Offshore,
Forrester Research TechStrategy Brief (for purchase only), November 2002,
by John C. McCarthy with Amy Dash, Heather Liddell, Christine Ferrusi Ross,
Bruce D. Temkin. See Research
Highlights.
This is the much quoted report from Forrester Research. Over the next 15
years, 3.3 million US services industry jobs and $136 billion in wages will
move offshore to countries like India, Russia, China, and the Philippines.
The IT industry will lead the initial overseas exodus.

Choose
to Compete: How Innovation, Investment and Productivity Can Grow U.S. Jobs
and Ensure American Competitiveness in the 21st Century (PDF).(January 7, 2004) "Chief executives
from the nation`s leading high technology companies today called on policymakers
to partner with them to establish new policy priorities that will increase
U.S. growth and competitiveness, ensure our nations continued technology
leadership and help create new American jobs. Faced with growing competitive
challenges and the need for decisive action to ensure U.S. economic security,
the members of the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP) today offered
preliminary recommendations to policymakers in Washington to strengthen
all sectors of the U.S. economy. As the U.S. encounters new global
realities policy makers face a choice: we can compete in the international
arena or we can retreat, said Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel Corporation
and chairman of CSPP. America can only grow jobs and improve its competitiveness
by choosing to compete globally, and that will require renewed focus on
innovation, education and investment.", from the full Press
Release issued by the CSSP.

Fortune
Favors the Bold, by Lester Thurow, 2004 (Harper Collins).
Review from Amazon.Com: "With Fortune Favors the Bold: What We Must
Do to Build a New and Lasting Global Prosperity, Lester Thurow follows on
his bestsellers The Zero-Sum Society and The Future of Capitalism by addressing
the path to globalization. Thurow--a Professor of Management and Economics
at MIT's Sloan School--draws uncompromising conclusions: only a bold embrace
of globalization will bring prosperity, and nations that fail to engage
in global economics will fall behind the world's dominant powers."
See video lecture on Fortune
Favors the Bold at MIT World.

The Partnership
for 21st Century Skills is a unique alliance of education, business
and government leaders working to fully address the education needs and
challenges of work and life in the 21st century.

IT
Worker News is published by TechsUnite, "a project of the Communications
Workers of America, AFL-CIO, in collaboration with key site partners, supporters
and stakeholders." This site, while oriented towards organizing IT
workers in the States, does a good job of posting news from around the world
about offshoring and globalization.

Andrew
Bibby Web Site. This British writer has written extensively (articles
and reports) about offshoring, outsourcing, telework, and the changing Global
economy.